Handful Of Cities Still Being Urged To Boil Water Or Risk Getting Sick
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PEMBROKE PINES (CBSMiami) – While nearly everyone in South Florida lost power during their storm, a lot also lost their drinking water. Thousands of families, in a handful of cities, are still being urged to boil their water or risk getting sick.
It is pitch dark in Nakia Bowling's North Miami home.
She's been without electricity since this weekend when Hurricane Irma hit. Adding to her misery is being under a precautionary boil water notice after the storm lead to water main breaks.
Water used for drinking, cooking, making ice, brushing teeth or washing dishes needs to be boiled -- something she can't do without electricity.
"I can't tell you how many time a day I just wanted to go into the kitchen and get some ice or going and getting something from the faucet," she said. "You can't. You can't wash the dishes with that. I don't feel comfortable."
Parts of Dania Beach and the city of Pembroke Pines are also under a precautionary boil water notice.
"The water boil notice is precautionary. It's not because we know that the water is contaminated. It's because we're assumed that because of the many breaks during the storm of that magnitude that we should have precaution," said Paul Thompson with the city of Pembroke Pines.
Crews spent the day flushing out water lines as they try to get things back to normal.
With the boil water notice in effect, people have been flocking to grocery stores to buy bottled water – something that's hard to find these days, according to customers.
"It's been a little tricky. Yesterday I went to Walmart – completely gone. It's been hard trying to find water. I started with five cases and now I'm down to none," said Pembroke Pines Leni Guzman.
Other Pembroke Pines residents aren't too concerned about the boil water notice.
"I think you have to learn to adjust to things and not let everything stress you out," said Stuart Herzdrun.
